Getting Spam Or Mysterious Alerts In Your Android Notification Bar? Here’s How To Get Rid Of Them

I’ve been fiddling with the settings on the Galaxy Nexus for the past few days attempting to figure out a way to keep the battery drain down to a dull roar. Since the screen brightness slider in Android 4.0 doesn’t tell you the exact percentage the phone is set to, I download an app called MySettings which allows me to set brightness by percentage value.

A couple of days ago I got a notification with a green cross icon next to it telling me that an update to the Android Market was available. I ignored it, at first. But when I gave it some more thought I realized that Android doesn’t notify users when there’s an update to the Market, Google just pushes it. So what was this about?

I clicked on the notification. It opened the browser (bad sign number one) to a web address that encouraged me to download “the newest Android Market.” The webpage even used the official Market logo. But the market in question is actually a third party one called Wrappio.

I know enough not to fall for such things, but not everyone does. The bigger problem for me was: how did that get into my notifications?

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A little while ago I got another mysterious notification, one using the same green cross icon as before. This one let me know that there was an 1 iPad 2 Unclaimed! for me. That’s not even trying not to look like spam. But again: how is it getting into my notifications?

I figured it had to be coming from some app I’d downloaded, but which one? I’ve installed several the past few days. All of them I’d installed before and never had this problem.

Josh Smith did some investigating for me and found out that the mysterious notifications are indeed ads being pushed from an app. He suggested I download Airpush Detector to discover which one.

Airpush Detector is free on the Android Market and does what it says on the tin: detects apps that use the notifications pulldown to push ads your way (AirPush). It lists the apps it detects and, if you tap them, you can uninstall right away.

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Only one app came up: MySettings. A shame, really, because I like that one. It has many useful features. But I do not want ads in my notification drawer, so away it went.

Once I uninstalled the app the remaining notification went away, too. Good riddance.

I accept that one of the ways app makers earn money is by placing ads within their apps, and I’m fine with that. It keeps many apps free yet still compensates the devs. However, I’m not at all down with ads showing up in my Notification bar where I expect to see real news and alerts, not fake ones. Plus, that first ad was designed to trick people, and it wouldn’t surprise me if other ads were similar. It’s spam, plain and simple, and not okay.

MySettings isn’t the kind of app that people will spend time in, so I get why the dev might look for alternative means to get ads in front of you. But the description does not inform users that they’ll get AirPush ads or what that might mean, just that the app is ad-supported.

Plus, this is a new addition to the app. The ads showed up with version 1.9.7 in late November. Unsuspecting users who upgraded started seeing the mysterious additions to their notifications and figured out that MySettings was to blame. They’ve been posting 1 star reviews and warnings to the Market ever since. Some even claim that the ads messed up their phone and introduced malware and trojans — possibly because they tapped the notifications.

MySettings isn’t the only app doing this. If you encounter this or any other app using AirPush ads, don’t tap on them and immediately uninstall the app. If you’re not sure which app is to blame, download Airpush Detector.

K. T. is a lover of technology, gadgets, and all things geek. She has the enviable job of playing with evaluating mobile tech and apps all day. Follow K. T. on Twitter @KTBradford, on Google+ and Tumblr or email her via her website, KTBradford.com.

104 COMMENTS

I’m a developer for the Banner app in the market and in-app ads is how I get some pocket cash. I’ve played with those AirPush ads and my gut told me they were to intrusive so I never deployed them. Ads need to stay within the apps. If the dev needs some cash, then do a handicapped free app with an option for a .$99 app with all features. If its a good app, $$ will come!

THANK YOU FOR WRITING THIS! You just saved my phone. The AirPush Detector app totally worked. Detected and removed in a matter of seconds! Thanks again, those would have drove me mad… and I would have ended up deleting a bunch of apps just by guessing which I had downloaded/updated recently. Not easy when updates are getting to be more often! Just updated 30 today. :/

Airpush detector didn’t find anything for me either. The app gave me the option to “help” by sending a list of apps to the developer so she/he could look at which apps of mine might be airpushing but that are not on the list.

You article was a great help… Thank you I couldnt figure out for the life of me which app was doing it …. turns out it was a stupid live wallpaper, which Iv never even used… Once again thanks for your work…

But – be aware of the permission that you have granted to the app when you install it. For example, AVI Player wants access to your personal information – e.g. contacts. Ask yourself: Why? Simply turning off the spam at the AIrPush site may stop the spam – but what other information is the malware sending to AirPush? The email addresses for all your friends? Pay attention to those permissions!

You can just go to xapush.com and opt out of receiving air push ads by entering your MEID, IMEI, or ESN number and you will not need to uninstall the app that gave you airpush ads. I did it, and it worked. I didn’t uninstall my app, and I didn’t have to install the app detector.
When you go to xapush.com and opt out, there are 2 options: to download the app, or manually opt out. I went to the market to download and saw tons of reviews warning me not to download the app. That’s why I decided to manually opt out. Plus I was able to keep my app.

This is customer service for Wrappio. We offer a premium android market and app recs sent to your phone. The service requires
your knowledge and consent to subscribe by affirmatively opting-in
twice. Also, please distinguish between ads promoting Wrappio and the
actual Wrappio service, as there appears to be some confusion above
between the two. In any event, to cancel the actual Wrappio service,
you may reply STOP to the shortcode. If you are unhappy with your
service and would like to request a refund, we also offer a
no-questions-asked full refund policy for all unsatisfied customers. You
may call 1-888-883-2423 to speak with a live operator. We apologize for
any inconvenience.

great post! i had the same thing happen to me this past week – and i’m no lightweight either, but the ad *initially* fooled me too. thanks for the recommendation on AirPush. i had two apps with ads – Pinterest (which REALLY disappoints me) and another unimportant app. oh well.

I’ve never found a forum that actually works. Thank you so much! Just in case anyone is curious, the application was Music Paradise for me. I didn’t start getting the push notifications until about two months after I had installed the application. This really did work quite well for me. Everyone should check out this application, Airpush Detector. Installed super fast, great speed. I had my application detected within seconds. Thanks a ton!

Man o Man, thanks to your article I got rid of two themes that were pushing adds. Like you, I don’t mind the adds within the program (If I really like the program and don’t want the adds I buy it.) but these that were pushing to my notification bar were really getting on my nerves. I downloaded the program and it took about 10 seconds to find the problem. It took me longer to read your post than it did for Airpush Detector to find the “Bad Guys”. :-)

Finally something that WORKED! Got rid of these unnecessary notifications for good. The Ap that caused it was an Electric Shaver. I know, it’s a pointless gimmick anyway :) Thank you for sharing the info!

Thanks a lot!
I upgraded my android firmvare to Ice Cream Sandwich and the telephone updated my apps. In old versions of my apps I didn’t get notifications, but in the new I got them as soon as the upgrade was finished. I thought that these is because of new Android firmware although I fought that is strange.
Notifications notified me about Battery Upgrade app, that is actually a trojan. Because the notifications keep repeating I thought it already installed.
So thanks for these article – I downloaded AirPush Detector, uninstalled Dog Whistle app and notifications disappeared.

Thank you for this.
I was extremely pissed off with spams being pushed through to my notification bar and found the culprit and uninstalled it right away.
It turned out to be a seemingly harmless battery calibrator app.

Thank you!! I’ve been freaking out for a few days trying to figure out where these ads were coming from! Its a shame, the ones they are coming from I actually liked having too but I wont stand for silly little ads on my phone :( Guess I’ll just have to find a new theme and mp3 downloader haha.

Anyways, thanks for the info! I wasn’t finding any info anywhere else!!! And the Airpush Detector worked easy peasy! So thanks!!

Thank you, I have plenty of apps and didn’t want to delete them all just to rectify this problem. I agree with everything you say, and am very pleased to know about airpush detector worked very well and easy to use for the not-so-technical android user!!

Wow, thanks so much for this. I never would have found out what the offending app was without your help. In my case, it was my favorite theme for GOsms – just the theme! The theme in question was Dark Purple. Thanks so very much for sharing.

Beautiful! Thank you so much for the help! I’ve been so frustrated everytime I look at my phone due to stupid spam and now I longer have to worry about it. Turns out it was a GO Launcher Theme–ICS. Thanks for saving my life!

I have been deleting apps for a week trying to figure out which one was spamming these annoying adds on my phone. I finally decided to look it up finally, out of frustration, and now I only wish I had sought assistance sooner. I’m still wary just due to the nature of apps, but so far so good! The developer should definitely consider charging for this service.

Tried this on my girlfriends phone, and it’s not detecting anything – anyone got Amy advice? It’s a galaxy s2, she’s getting ads for different games in the notifications bar. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

THANK YOU!! my goodness, I was pulling my hair out getting “inappropriate” ads appearing in my notifications. After reading this it took less than a minute for the problem to be solved. I’m extremely grateful.

Thanks man! I was trying to figure out what app was sending the notifications and the app you informed us of worked like a charm. The app that was sending it was ringdroid. What a shame, because the app was great. Thanks again!

Thank You!! Was able to locate which app was sending these stupid notifications, I was getting anywhere from 5-10 a day!! It was starting to piss me off. Downloaded the suggested Airpusher and sure enough it was an app I downloaded that never worked!

Thank you for a great review. Today, the Google Play is even more full of spamming apps, in addition to Airpush exists more push ads networks. I recently found another fantastic tool for removing that kind of spamming apps – Addons detector. It is free and detects many push ads in addition to Airpush. Strongly recommending.

Orit, thanks for your post! I downloaded the Adpush app but it didn’t detect what was giving me the notifications. I downloarded Addons and it was unfortunately the Go SMS Samsung 3 theme :( The ad disappeared as soon as I uninstalled the theme. Thanks so much!!

I think that if you download an app that is “free” and the developer clearly states that the they have included an ad network to help pay for their time – but also offers a pro version without ads, you should buy the pro version. What most consumers don’t realize when they download “free” apps is that someone actually took their time to build something cool and if you want it, you should pay the $0.99 for the non-ad one. I get sick of people complaining about “free” applications that display ads or notifications. Simply pay the developer for their time with their “pro” version and you can stop complaining about ads.

@Craig. And I get sick of people (like Craig) who don’t read and comprehend the article about INTRUSIVE ads in the notification area. The apps including these nuisances do NOT explain beforehand that they’ll pump a bunch of junk into your notifications. IN-APP ads are ok… spamming our basic functions is not.

I stared getting all these weird ads about meeting singles in my area. Try to explain that to my boyfriend. All because I downloaded some app to add extra fonts to my phone… Live and learn. Thanks for the info. It saved more than just my phone :)